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Spotzer Media Group Names CEO and Full Management Team
20 December 2006 Spotzer Media Group, BV, a Dutch Internet start-up that aims to make it fast, easy and affordable for local businesses around the world to advertise using video across multiple platforms, today announced that Andrew D. Klein, founder, has become its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Klein, 46, recently left Skybridge Capital, a hedge fund incubator, to become CEO of Spotzer on Oct. 1, to help grow the business.
Based in Amsterdam, Spotzer is pioneering a "ready-to-air" approach to video advertising that will enable local businesses to rent and run professionally- designed and produced advertisements in Europe for as little as Euro 500.
Clients will be able to select "off the shelf" a pre-produced video commercial which they can then personalize through state-of-the-art production facilities. Through Spotzer, local advertisers will also be able to create complete media plans and purchase air or media time on television, websites, narrow casting screens and other media. Clients will be able to complete the entire video advertising process online through the group's website (http://www.spotzer.com).
The six-month old company today also unveiled additional members of its senior management team, including technology, advertising and sales executives with deep experience in digital media.
Klein, a serial entrepreneur, has previously started three venture-backed companies. In 1996, he established the first online investment bank Wit Capital, which was one of the early successes in the first Internet boom. Widely recognized as the pioneer of online stock offerings, Wit Capital itself went public on the NASDAQ in 1999 before ultimately being acquired by discount broker Charles Schwab.
In addition to Wit Capital, Klein was a co-founder of Soleil Securities -- the largest aggregator of independent equity research; and SkyBridge Capital -- a hedge fund incubator that has a strategic relationship with the private investment company of Michael S. Dell. Klein started his career as a securities lawyer with Cravath, Swaine & Moore before he quit to start a microbrewery, Spring Street Brewing Co., in 1992. Klein is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brandeis University.
Klein actually founded Spotzer after being inspired by a California-based company, Spot Runner (http://www.spotrunner.com), which debuted at Esther Dyson's PC Forum in March 2006. While Spot Runner, backed by CBS, WPP, Interpublic and Lachlan Murdoch as well as Index Ventures and Battery Ventures, is launching services that use pre-produced video commercials to help initially local U.S. businesses advertise on cable television and other media, Klein saw an opportunity to create a global business based on a library of universal commercials that could be modified to work for local businesses across cultures and languages. He also saw opportunity to extend the core idea of ready-to-air commercials to multiple platforms, including online video, narrow casting and cell phones -- where there is even greater potential for targeted, addressable advertising compared to cable television.
Back in the Netherlands, where he has lived since leaving New York in 2000, Klein was introduced through a friend to a neighbor, Thed Lenssen, 56, who has been one of Europe's most highly acclaimed commercial directors for more than 25 years. Lenssen has directed commercials for Heineken, Philips, Volkswagen and many others and is the founder of The D-Films and Snoep Films. He has won numerous awards including three Cannes Lions.
Klein and Lenssen hit it off quickly, and in April Klein agreed to establish and fund Spotzer and serve as Chairman, while Lenssen agreed to take responsibility for running the new business as senior vice president, creative director.
But with the business rapidly gaining momentum, Klein decided at the end of September to resign from SkyBridge Capital and jump full time into Spotzer. He became Chief Executive Officer October 1st.
Subsequently, Klein and Lenssen have raised additional capital and recruited an impressive team of executives and creative professionals.
The Spotzer management team will now include:
Caroline Finch, 36, Vice President, Media, who until recently was the director of marketing at Vonage where she managed one of the largest online customer acquisition campaigns in history;
Piet Hein Kerkhof, 33, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, who previously was country manager for Yahoo! Netherlands;
Dave Alpert, 40, Vice President, Technology, who has over 19 years of technical experience in the communications and media industries and has served as Chief Technology Officer for HBO in Central Europe.
About Spotzer
Based in Amsterdam, Spotzer is pioneering a "ready-to-air" online approach to video advertising that will make it easy, fast and affordable for local businesses to buy and personalize pre-produced video commercials. Advertisers will also work with Spotzer to create media plans and purchase air or media time on television, websites, narrow casting screens and other media through its Web site, Spotzer.com.
Contact:
Renee Edelman Janine Hills
Edelman Spotzer Media Group, BV
+1 212 704 8249 +31 (0)20 675-2567
Renee.edelman@edelman.com janine@spotzer.com
Source: prnewswire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
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